Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell said that though many Republicans opposed an attempt to defund the president’s health-care bill, the Senate GOP conference remains dedicated to repealing it, but must retake a majority in the Senate and capture the White House to do so.

“We’re going to do everything we can in the future to try to repeal [Obamacare],” McConnell told CBS’s Bob Schieffer on Sunday, “but that requires a Republican Senate and a different president.”

The minority leader emphasized that, from their position in the minority, Republicans can make little headway against the Affordable Care Act. “We have a math problem in the Senate in getting rid of Obamacare. It’s the following problem: 55 Democrats and 45 Republicans. We only control a portion of the government and so that limits our ability to get rid of this horrible law.”

McConnell dodged questions about how he plans to deal with future efforts by Texas senator Ted Cruz to scuttle Obamacare even at the risk of another government shutdown, and played down their recent disagreement as one over tactics rather than principle.